Scottish Executive

Children's Hearing System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children's panel areas operated below their target membership level in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04, broken down by local authority area and showing the percentage shortfall.

Euan Robson: Children’s Panel Advisory Committees monitor panel member availability on an on-going basis. Target membership figures are not meaningful, as the number of panel members required in a local authority area at any time depends on the number of hearings called and the current level of availability of the existing members, which can vary. However, projections on recruitment needs for the coming year are determined in advance of the annual recruitment campaign.

  Since 2000 the national recruitment target has been exceeded by the number appointed. Turnover statistics can be referenced in the answer to question S2W-12921, answered on 22 December 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search. Detailed information on projected recruitment needs compared with numbers of new panel members appointed since 2000 is given in a table Children's Panel Member Recruitment by Local Authority Area, 1999-2000 – 2003-04, which has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 34685).

Children's Hearing System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional resources it provided to support the work of children's panels in (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04.

Euan Robson: Apart from Grant Aided support to the local authorities for social work the Scottish Executive allocated specific financial resources as follows:

  

Budget
1999-2000
(£000)
2000-01
(£000)
2001-02
(£000)
2002-03
(£000)
2003-04
(£000)


Training
393
393
393
643
665


Recruitment and Support
242
242
300
642
792


Legal Representation of Children
n/a
n/a
500
3
3


SCRA
12,265
13,747
15,751
16,506
21,176


Total
12,9
14,382
16,944
20,8791
25,633



  In addition, the Scottish Executive provided staff to co-ordinate news letters, a website, development of software, training etc.

Children's Hearings System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when Phase 2 of the review of the children’s hearing system will begin.

Euan Robson: Shortly. Proposals for Phase 2 are being considered in the light of the issues raised by Phase 1 which include how to ensure the system delivers positive outcomes for all children referred through interagency working, how to engage better with parents and highlight their responsibilities, and the fit between the children’s hearings system and other services for children.

Children's Hearings System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the percentage turnover was of children’s panel members in (a) 1999-00, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03, (e) 2003-2004, broken down by local authority area.

Euan Robson: The information requested is given in a table Children's Panel Member Turnover, 1999-2000 – 2003-04 , which has been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 34684).

Children's Hearings System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it is evaluating morale among members of children’s panels and whether it will consider publishing any such evaluation.

Euan Robson: The Scottish Executive liaises closely with all partners within the children’s hearings system on an on-going basis in order to identify and address issues of concern.

  In 2002, independent research was undertaken to identify reasons why panel members resign. A retention strategy was prepared and consulted on with panel interests. The research and the strategy are available on the children’s hearings website www.childrens-hearings.co.uk.

  The strategy has been monitored by the Publicity Working Group, which advises the Scottish Executive on recruitment and comprises representatives from all parts of the hearings system. Most measures have been implemented.

Children's Hearings System

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to sub-divide the children’s hearing system following Phase 2 of the review of the system.

Euan Robson: The objective of the review is to develop and improve the children’s hearings system while respecting its fundamental principles, one of which is a single system for dealing with children who offend or who are in need of care and protection.

Civil Servants

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will encourage MSPs to develop contact and relationships with senior civil servants similar to those that have been developed with heads and leading officials in non-departmental public bodies; if so, how it intends to do so, and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.

Mr Tom McCabe: All civil servants are required to act in accordance with the terms of the Civil Service Code, including their contact with MSPs. The Civil Service Code states that the constitutional and practical role of the civil service is to assist the duly constituted government of the day, with integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity. Specific guidance on contacts with MSPs is available for Scottish Executive staff, which refers to the principles of the Civil Service Code. The Scottish Executive staff directory has been available to MSPs and their staff since April 2001, through the Scottish Parliament intranet site. Currently there are no plans to change policy on MSPs having contact with civil servants.

Civil Servants

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people left the civil service in Scotland in each of the last five years and how many are estimated to leave in each of the next five years.

Mr Tom McCabe: The headcount of permanent leavers from the Scottish Executive core departments, agencies and associated departments in each of the past five financial years is provided in the following table.

  The data provided include members of staff who have left and rejoined during the period under investigation. The data therefore reflect the number of leavers, rather than number of individuals. The data provided relate to all civil servants leaving the Scottish Executive. It is not possible to distinguish the destination of the leavers, which may have been another public body in Scotland. The Scottish Executive does not hold leaver information for some associated departments/agencies* or other public bodies in Scotland.

  

Financial Year
Leavers (headcount)


1999-2000
733


2000-01
589


2001-02
478


2002-03
464


2003-04
468



  Future Leavers

  The expected number of age retirements from the Scottish Executive core departments, agencies and associated departments, in each of the next five financial years, is provided in the following table. The figures are derived from the age of current employees, given an expected retirement age of 60 yrs.

  It is not possible to predict the number of other leavers over the coming five years. However, there is no reason to expect that this will differ significantly from the number of leavers over the last five years.

  

Financial Year
Expected Retirements (headcount)


2004-05
117


2005-06
95


2006-07
188


2007-08
189


2008-09
198



  *Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal, Scottish Prison Service, Scottish Courts Service, Historic Scotland, Registers of Scotland and Communities Scotland staff that have not signed up to Scottish Executive terms and conditions.

Civil Servants

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were recruited to the civil service in Scotland in each of the last five years and how many are estimated to be recruited in each of the next five years.

Mr Tom McCabe: The headcount of permanent new starts to the Scottish Executive core departments, agencies and associated departments in each of the past five financial years is provided in the following table. The data provided includes members of staff who have left and rejoined during the period under investigation. The data therefore reflect the number of new starts, rather than number of individuals. The data provided relates to all civil servants joining the Scottish Executive. It is not possible to distinguish the origin of the new starts, which may have been another public body in Scotland. The Scottish Executive does not hold recruitment information for some associated departments/agencies* or other public bodies in Scotland.

  

Financial Year
New Starts (headcount)


1999-2000
925


2000-01
881


2001-02
922


2002-03
772


2003-04
551



  Future recruitment

  The Scottish Executive has experienced a period of growth since devolution leading to relatively high levels of recruitment. Given the tight constraints on administration costs recently announced we are clear that this will not continue. It is not possible to predict exact recruitment numbers over the coming five years. However, there is likely to be a continued need for some limited external recruitment to address turnover and to allow the Scottish Executive to recruit for specific specialist and professional skills to meet business needs.

  *Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal, Scottish Prison Service, Scottish Courts Service, Historic Scotland, Registers of Scotland and Communities Scotland staff that have not signed up to Scottish Executive terms and conditions.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will follow the model in Sir Peter Gershon’s report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency , by publishing, department by department, efficiency savings plans to allow transparency in their delivery and, if so, what the timetable is.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive will ensure transparency in the delivery of efficiency savings.

  Paragraph 13 of Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity states that we will publish technical notes on the plans for cash-releasing savings by March 2005. Paragraph 24 states that we will publish technical notes on the plans for time-releasing efficiency savings by April 2005.

  Paragraph 48 states that departments and public bodies will be required to develop project plans for Efficient Government projects, which include clear milestones, identified lead and supporting roles, governance arrangements, measures for identifying and tracking benefits, and risk management.

  Paragraph 51 states that individual project plans will be built into the Executive’s performance management systems. Departmental plans will set out how Efficient Government will continue to be taken forward across the Scottish public sector, and will include expectations for efficiency gains from each and every public body.

  Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government set out the right way forward for Scotland. Gershon also includes a LOOK target for civil service job cuts the Executive does not believe this is the right way to go about this.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when any Scottish-specific analysis comparable to that carried out in Sir Peter Gershon’s report, Releasing resources to the front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency , on the potential impact on jobs of planned efficiency savings will be published.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive has not carried out any Scottish-specific analysis on the potential impact on jobs of planned efficiency savings. Once detailed project plans have been prepared for the implementation of Efficient Government projects, it will be possible to assess the impact on jobs.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what it means by "aggregate cumulative cash-releasing savings" and what relevance the figure of £1,732 million has for the Efficient Government initiative.

Mr Tom McCabe: The aggregate cumulative cash-releasing savings is the total amount of cash releasing efficiency savings that will be made over the three year period, 2005-06 to 2007-08. Therefore, on the basis of the currently confirmed plans, over the three year period, 2005-06 to 2007-08, £1,732 million will be freed up for investment in improving our public services.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Audit Scotland will confirm that the savings contained in Building a Better Scotland – Securing Efficiency Effectiveness and Productivity have been delivered as well as auditing the system for delivering efficiency.

Mr Tom McCabe: We will invite Audit Scotland to audit the system for delivering efficiency savings and to confirm that the efficiency savings have been made.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all revisions to service delivery as a result of implementing the measures contained in Building a Better Scotland – Securing Efficiency Effectiveness and Productivity will be reported in the normal supplementary estimates.

Mr Tom McCabe: I have already made clear that we will report regularly to the Parliament’s Finance Committee on the progress of Efficient Government. I look forward to discussing further with the committee how this might best be done, though I am not immediately attracted to the suggestion above as I understand it of using the supporting documents to our regular budget revisions.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish a table of planned savings on a comparable basis to that in HM Treasury SR 2004 Statement, itemising planned savings as a result of its Efficient Government plans.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive published a table of cash-releasing efficiency savings, by portfolio, on page 4 of Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity . Paragraph 24 of the document commits the Executive to publishing technical notes on the identified projects to secure £300 million per annum of additional time-releasing efficiencies by April 2005.

  The responsibilities of Scottish portfolios differ considerably from UK Government Departments since UK Government Departments are responsible for areas of policy that are reserved to Westminster. Furthermore, we are taking a different approach to our efficiency review. As the responsibilities for the Scottish Executive portfolios and UK Departments are different and we are both taking different approaches to our efficiency review, it would serve no useful purpose to draw a direct comparison.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive in what ways HM Treasury and the Gershon implementation team will be kept in touch with progress on the Executive's Efficient Government plans.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Efficient Government Team is in regular contact with the Gershon implementation team at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to share information and approaches to delivering efficiency savings.

Efficient Government

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether £745 million or £1,732 million has been reallocated from administration to frontline services and, if the latter figure, what the savings items were which made this possible.

Mr Tom McCabe: Over the three year period from 2005-06 to 2007-08, £1,732 million of efficiency savings will be invested in improving public services. From 2007-08, a minimum of £745 million a year of efficiency savings will be invested in improving public services.

Fisheries

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what correspondence it has had with the British Geological Survey regarding the use of fishing boats to carry out seabed mapping.

Lewis Macdonald: The British Geological Survey (BGS) responded to the Scottish Executive’s public consultation on the European Commission’s proposals for a European Fisheries Fund. In its response BGS proposed the use of fishing boats to carry out seabed mapping.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the rate of MRSA is per 1,000 bed days, broken down by NHS board.

Mr Andy Kerr: A national mandatory hospital surveillance system was introduced in 2001 to monitor MRSA blood infections. The surveillance system is operated by Health Protection Scotland (formerly Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health) and it produces quarterly reports (see www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/ ) which show rates per 1,000 bed days.

  Overall rates are stabilising and may be beginning to show signs of reduction.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities underspent their housing expenditure programmes in respect of the (a) New Housing Partnership programme, (b) Rough Sleepers Initiative and (c) Empty Homes Initiative.

Malcolm Chisholm: Information on each of the programmes is set out.

  New Housing Partnership programme

  With the exception of Angus Council, all local authorities participated in the programme. Of these 31 authorities, all but Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire and Orkney Islands Councils incurred underspends against allocations in one or more of the financial years from 1998 to 2004.

  Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI)

  Over the period 1997–2002, the 11 local authorities listed below incurred underspends which exceeded 1% of their grant allocations.

  Angus

  Argyll and Bute

  Dumfries and Galloway

  City of Edinburgh

  Glasgow City

  Inverclyde

  North and South Ayrshire

  Renfrewshire

  Stirling

  West Dunbartonshire

  Since 2002-03, there have been underspends in RSI capital projects in two council areas, namely East and West Dunbartonshire. The revenue element of RSI funding has been distributed to councils through Revenue Support Grant since 2002-03.

  Empty Homes Initiative

  Over the period 1997-2004, the 20 local authorities listed below incurred underspends which exceeded 1% of their grant allocations.

  Aberdeen City

  Aberdeenshire

  Argyll and Bute

  Clackmannanshire

  Dumfries and Galloway

  East Ayrshire

  East Lothian

  City of Edinburgh

  Eilean Siar

  Falkirk

  Inverclyde

  Moray

  North Lanarkshire

  Orkney Islands

  Perth and Kinross

  Scottish Borders

  Shetland Islands

  South Ayrshire

  South Lanarkshire

  Stirling.

Organ Retention

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the timetable is for the introduction of a bill on organ retention and transplantation.

Mr Andy Kerr: The legislation dealing with organ donation and transplantation, hospital post-mortem examinations and modernisation of the Anatomy Act 1984 will be brought forward with minimal delay, and will follow the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill in the legislative programme.

Procurement

Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it provides to schools, local authority homes and hospitals to allow them to purchase locally-grown produce.

Mr Andy Kerr: There is no specific allocation of funding to local authorities or the NHS for purchase of locally grown produce. Decisions on the procurement of food, including locally grown produce, by schools, local authority homes, and hospitals are ultimately the responsibility of those bodies, and not the Executive.

  To make it easier for local food to be procured by public bodies, in May we launched guidelines on incorporating sustainable development into public procurement of food and catering services. This is available on the Scottish Procurement Directorate website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/SPD/17839/16689 and gives guidance to public procurement officials, including those in local authorities and health boards on maximising opportunities for local food within their procurement procedures while complying with European procurement regulations.

Scottish Executive Publications

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all its publications are available in large print, Braille and audio format.

Mr Tom McCabe: Our policy is to make our documents available in a variety of formats, including large print, Braille and audio versions. Where we know in advance that our target audience is likely to include those who require any of these formats, they are produced automatically. In all other cases, requests for alternative formats are met on demand.

Vaccinations

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that it has a stockpile of vaccinia immune globulin sufficient to conduct a mass vaccination should an outbreak of smallpox occur.

Mr Andy Kerr: Yes. The UK Government launched a procurement exercise, which included Scotland, for vaccinia immunoglobulin on 19 November 2004 to augment the small strategic stock currently stockpiled to support preparedness for mass vaccination on a UK-wide basis.

  Expressions of interest for the supply of vaccinia immunoglobulin have been received and are being reviewed. Selected suppliers will then be invited to submit tenders. Information about how much vaccinia immunoglobulin can be produced and the timescale for its supply will only become apparent at the tender evaluation stage. A decision on the quantity to be purchased will then be made.